Opto-Electrical Performance Improvement of Mono c-Si Solar Cells Using Dielectric–Metal–Dielectric (DMD) Sandwiched Structure-Based Plasmonic Anti-Reflector.
11 November 2016
Abstract
Mono c-Si solar cells based on plasmonic anti-reflector, an ultra-thin silver (Ag) film sandwiched between silicon nitride (SiNx) layers on non-textured c-Si surface, have been explored. Prior to solar cell fabrication, the plasmonic anti-reflector structure was optimized separately by varying different thicknesses of top and bottom SiNx layers and the sandwiched ultra-thin Ag film. For broad wavelength range (300–1200 nm), minimum weighted reflectance was observed in the range of 8–9 %, for the top and bottom SiNx layers having 70–80-nm thickness.
The refractive index of top and bottom SiNx layers was in the range of 1.77–1.80 and 1.92–1.96, respectively. A 180-μm non-textured mono c-Si solar cell is fabricated with plasmonic anti-reflector, having top and bottom SiNx layer thickness of 80-nm and 8–9-nm sandwiched ultra-thin Ag layer, resulted in 17 % solar cell efficiency. The measured efficiency was 1.8 % higher compared to 180-μm mono c-Si solar cell with standard 80 nm SiNx anti-reflector.
The short circuit current density (Jsc) extracted from external quantum efficiency (EQE) has shown 0.5 mA/cm2 enhancement for the dielectric–metal–dielectric (D-M-D) sandwiched structure (plasmonic anti-reflector)-based solar cell compared to standard SiNx anti-reflection coating (ARC) structure-based solar cell. EQE enhancement was seen for all wavelengths above 700 nm with maximum 25–26 % enhancement at around 1125 nm. Also, in UV wavelength region (300–400 nm), EQE enhancement was seen with maximum 25 % enhancement at around 370 nm. Possible phenomenon for improved anti-reflection and EQE in D-M-D-based plasmonic anti-reflector has been discussed.
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Citation
Singh, H.K., Arunachalam, B., Kumbhar, S., Sharma, P. and Solanki, C.S., 2016. Opto-Electrical Performance Improvement of Mono c-Si Solar Cells Using Dielectric–Metal–Dielectric (DMD) Sandwiched Structure-Based Plasmonic Anti-Reflector. Plasmonics, 11(1), pp.323-336.
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Category: Solar & Photovoltaics